Welcome!

The device of the station of birth plays a large part in all four of the works we read over the semester. In I, Tituba, the author grants Tituba renewed empowerment through her birth; in Black Shack Alley, Jose’s birth in the Alley forces him to leverage the racially unequal devices of the French regime to gain social advancement; Sophie’s trauma in Breath, Eyes, Memory is propagated by her violent conception—which results in her mother’s forced testing upon her; Joys of Motherhood’s Nnu Ego’s family is loving, yet with conservative values which forces a crippling sense of motherly duty that almost drove her to death. Birth, and challenging the station assigned at birth, is a fundamental value pervasive through the texts.

General Information

Prompt

In an interview, Maryse Conde explains, “I was attracted to write the particular story of Tituba because this woman was unjustly treated by history. I felt the need to give her a reality that was denied to her because of her color and her gender.” Choose one or two literary devices and explain how Conde uses it/them in the novel to give Tituba her subjecthood. Examples could be: narrative voice, allusion, irony, dialogue, etc.

Joys of Motherhood highlights the plurality of duties for the reader women have to undertake in order to succeed in Nigerian society. Women represent 80% of agricultural labor in Nigeria—a dangerous job, yet is significantly underrepresented in knowledge-based work.

Prior to gaining ownership to her own stall, Nhu Ego has to “spread her wares on the pavement” (Emecheta 113) selling goods in order to make ends meet—despite Nnaife’s money from employment which he often squanders.

Even if the education system provides a ticket for its successful students to gain social advancement, it is often difficult or even arbitrary. Access to education is also frequently dependent on race.

In Black Shack Alley, Zobel frames the value of schooling as a “gateway … to escape.” (Zobel) Zobel highlights that the main way to escape the oppression in the colonies is by leveraging the itself oppressive systems of education.

• Quote
• Explanation of quote (“understanding lived experience”)
• Implication (“understanding Duets/Othello”)

Sharpe Wake; Sears Duet

Wake, p 16: ANALYZE ON TOP, CONNECT HERE

To be in the wake is to live in those no’s, to live in the no-space that the law is not bound to respect … To be in the wake is to recognize … the ongoing locations of Black being: the wake, the ship, the hold, and the weather.